I know someone selling a pretty much complete, rebuilt, stock, 2 bolt 454 with 781 heads, already got valve covers, oil pan, water pump. Hees asking 2500$ I havnt been looking at Big blocks long enough to tell wheather this is really a good deal or not. Seems to be. I dont have the block casting yet. It has 500 miles since the rebuild he said and its not installed. What ya think? better off going to a machine shop and getting a stock 454 built there?

Unless you know the guy very well and trust him and whoever built the engine, it's a fair price, but not a 'deal'.

For that kind of money, I would build my own to know what you have and build excatly what you want. You could get a good 454 core for ~ $400.

As Jimmy said a little pricey. Just sold a nice complete 454 pull out for $500 and had a not to exceed price to build it of $2000 by a top end builder. The biggest problem is knowing if anything you have been told is true. Used is still used with no guarantees.

The unknown you are dealing with is the same one I have when I pick up those two square objects and chunk 'em to the other end of the dice table. It is the reason they call it gambling. At the very least you are getting no choice of any of the internals of the motor.

There is rebuilt and there is rebuilt, it means nothing unless you have the machine shop receipts. A turned crank and resized rods with an overbore and new pistons is worth more than a new set of bearings, a rehone and the old pistons with new rings. Many variables, it goes on....

A rebuilt long block from from Advance,etc. (one of the chain stores) will run you $1700-1800+ core

It is a gamble buying a engine from someone and i lost at that game. Now im putting $1500 more into the engine to fix his mistakes. Its not fun to put a engine in and have to pull it back out to find that the rear main seal was put in wrong and that the wrong rear main cap was put on.